John Hancock Tower
The John Hancock Tower is the tallest building in Boston with 241 meters and 60 floors. Prior to construction of a building is had that name, so sometimes spoken in the immediate vicinity of the old and the new Hancock Tower.
As "John Hancock Building " were in the city's history even three different buildings called, and soon there will be possibly a fourth. All offices are the John Hancock Insurance Company ( John Hancock Insurance ), which owes its name to the former Governor and Founding Father John Hancock.
The "new" Hancock Tower
John Hancock Tower is now called the tower completed in 1976, its official name is Hancock Place. The address is 200 Clarendon Street, but also post to Hancock Place arrives.
Architecture
The tower was designed by the architects I. M. Pei and Henry N. Cobb ( firm Pei Cobb Freed and ). In 2005, he was ranked 45 of the tallest buildings in the United States and ranked 131 in global comparison. The floor plan is a parallelogram. The architecture is modernist, monolithic and simultaneously minimalist by the solid, completely blue reflective glass facade. On a clear day, the tower reflects its surroundings and adds the fact in the cityscape. The style was picked up in Germany a few years later, among others, at the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main.
Construction problems
Never before had been used in this size and number in a high rise glass. Due to an engineering error again and again heavy glass plates ( 1.20 × 227 kg weight 3,40 m, ) dissolved shortly after the completion of the facade off and fell on the road. The police had at wind speeds of more than 70 km / h, the area of the tower shut off. The holes in the facade were temporarily sealed with plywood panels, giving the building popularly earned the mocking name " Plywood Palace " ( " Plywood Palace ") and the joke, he would be " the tallest plywood building in the world ". According to the Boston Globe, the problem was only after wind tunnel tests solved in cooperation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ) from 1973 and replaced the entire facade. Overall, the construction was delayed by further problems for several years, the planned construction cost of 75 million U.S. dollar shot up to a total of 175 million U.S. dollars.
With its glass facade of the tower now suffers from high air conditioning costs. Another problem that a strong sway, which should have led to the upper floors of some employees to seasickness, was solved by the installation of a total of 600 tons of lead weights in the 58th floor.
Award
From the American Institute of Architects, the building received the 2011 Twenty -five Year Award.
The "old" Hancock Tower
The two former John Hancock Building in direct proximity to the new tower. The old buildings are reflected At one point in the facade of the new. The first John Hancock building is the flat building in the foreground of the year in 1922 and is now known as Stephen L. Brown Building ( 197 Clarendon St. address ). Behind this is the "old" John Hancock Tower with 14 floors from 1947, which has since been renamed Manulife Tower ( address 601 Congress Street ).
Trivia
In the television series Fringe - Special cases of the FBI, this building is output as the headquarters of the FBI. However, the real office is located at the One Center Plaza.
Gallery
The two older John Hancock buildings reflect At one point in the facade of the new
A tree in front of the Tower